Monday, July 23, 2012

Carrot soup

Summer is a particularly difficult season for me to fully enjoy food, whether it's cooking or eating (Please see here as I complained almost exactly the same way a year ago to date).  And I guess it should be the opposite because we have farmers markets everywhere (albeit most of their hours are inconvenient as all hell to people who hold 9-5 jobs and do not have summer vacations) and fresh produce and all that jazz.  It's not though.  It's mostly too warm and too humid in this city and on this coast to properly enjoy eating, walking or standing outside for food, and the same goes for my kitchen.

That being said, on a down day where my meat thermometer does not read 95 degrees in my kitchen, I will partake in some leisurely cooking, especially if it involves eating said product in a cool air-conditioned environment.

I like making soups because they are easy, develop a depth of flavor over time and can taste complex as all hell with a few ingredients and proper seasoning.  The flavor and complexity of taste are intensified if you use your own broth/stock.  Plus, you are then even more impressed with your own work when you know exactly what went into it.  I use packaged broth/stock interchangeably and honestly have no preference for any kind or brand, except I avoid canned vegetable broth/stocks in particular and would rather use a chicken broth/stock anyway or a fake chicken alternative.  I find that the veggie ones always have this strong tomato-like essence or coloring and fuck up your main objective.  That's just me.

On Sunday afternoon, I made a variation of Bon Appetit's Moroccan Carrot Soup from April 2010.  I wanted a carrot soup, looked up one on epicurious, found this recipe, and then came home to follow the recipe from the actual magazine, and low and behold I had already folded the fateful page for this soup recipe approximately two years ago.  And never made it until yesterday.  Oops.

The recipe calls for a handful of ingredients, all of which are fairly common: butter, white onion, carrots, chicken broth, cumin seeds (I opted for ground cumin), honey, lemon juice, allspice (omitted) and yogurt (also omitted).  I was a little wary of the honey/lemon addition, but it adds a serious "What is this taste?" to the soup (in a good way), and the cumin is vital into even making it Moroccan.  I'm sure the sauteeing of the whole cumin seeds and finely grinding them in my mortar and pestle would have been better than just adding the cumin to the pot, but for a soup this simple, I'm more of a "Why bother?" type gal.  So I didn't bother.

The best part of this soup though?  It was fucking orange as orange can be.  Like, ROYGBIV type orange.  Fucking awesome.  The below picture does it no justice, as it is taken under the harsh, depressing fluorescent light in my office.


This is how it looks as leftovers with rosemary sourdough croutons made from an old Whole Foods boule.  And I'm not talking "day old," I'm talking at least four days old - stale as hell until cut up and toasted on an iron skillet or sliced and served with cheese.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Stew for a crew

This is the chicken thighs and reduced marinade
The whole concoction, simmering
The finished product

I made a stew tonight that is beyond awesome. I dare say, bring two pairs of fat pants when you eat it, because you will surely soil the first pair.
I think my pot is right at 5 gallons and this about filled it. If you have a crock pot, that will work, too. Feel free to reduce portions and adjust as needed in case you live in a hotel room in the middle of Nowheresville, California, and only have a hot plate to cook on.
My carton of chicken thighs was 8-fold. I started by making a marinade of BBQ sauce, ketchup, brown mustard, bacon hot sauce (yeah, that's a thing), black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt, cumin, Mesa (It's a 16-spice poultry rub by Bobby Flay. I'm probably doubling up some spices, but oh well), tumeric, a big spoonful of better, vinegar, a little canola oil and a beer. Add enough water to cover the chicken. Knife some holes in the chicken and let that bad boy sit for at least 30 minutes.
I'm a big believer of spicing in the moment. This is just what I had on hand and felt like adding, but spice however you feel!
Heat a thin layer of canola oil in a frying pan and remove the chicken and brown in the pan. You'll probably want to add a little more salt and pepper and maybe butter on each side of the chicken. While the chicken is browning, Put the pot on high heat and reduce the marinade until it is thick and syrupy. The chicken took two batches in my pan. Don't cook it all the way through, though. Let the inside be a little raw so it finishes cooking when you add it back to the stew.
Cut up the chicken into bite-size pieces, throw the bones back into the marinade, and set the chicken bits aside until the marinade is reduced. Add the chicken and reduced marinade back to the frying pan and put on low heat.
Now to start the stew. I got a pound or so of soup mix from the store. It's basically a bunch of beans and a little rice. Add 4 diced potatoes, 5 chicken bouillon cubes and some spices if it's a bit bland. I ended up adding more black/cayenne pepper, cilantro, cumin and bacon salt. Once the taters are soft, add everything you've got in the pan (both the chicken and marinade) and put on medium heat until the chicken is cooked through.
If I had it, I would have thrown in some parsley, chopped onion and maybe some celery. 

Friday, May 4, 2012

A sad, sad, sad little dinner

ugh. microwave pho. could it get any sadder? why yes. Klamath Falls has(had) one vietnamese place, but apparently it shut down. along with both sex shops in the area, huge bummer. now all there is is a safeway, a fred meyers, and a walmart ... where did all the little guys go? at least the yoga place is open... until walmart finds a way to open a chain of gyms!

the least i could do was gussy this up with some cilantro, fresh shiitake, and a squeezeroni of lime. and a side of avocado. (nostalgia for picking avos right off the tree in hawaii in 3... 2... 1...)

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Hotel Cooking


























Hey guys. I know it's been dead around here, but a LONG time ago I promised you posts after I was to get out of a hotel, but that never really happened. Mostly because I currently live like a nomad bouncing from hotel to hotel for 9 months of the year and live like a hippie for the other 3 months. So here is some hotel cooking for ya'll!

I have 2 pans (1 frying pan, 1 soup pot) and 1 hot plate. Tonight for dinner (and this will be dinner for quite a few nights as well) I sauteed some sweet potato and a golden beet with ginger, soy sauce, coriander, olive oil, onion, and garlic. When that was done, I cooked up some chicken, mushrooms, basil, salt/pepper, ginger, asperagus and cherry tomaters and called it a day!

Cooking takes an incredibly long time when you only have one burner, it's a bummer. I was going to throw some couscous in here too but realized that I wasn't going to be able to fit all the leftovers in my teeny tiny little hotel fridge, so I left that for another day.

It's taken a long time, but I feel like after a lot of practice, I'm just as good at cooking hotel meals as i was cooking home meals! It's mostly a matter of timing and washing my frying pan multiple times per meal.

Hope you all are doing well. let's start posting again!
-vmoneyyyyyyyyy

ps. golden beets are the BOMB